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2007/02/03

The Blognonymous No Fuss Guide To Self-hosting

Let me start by saying that if your well-schooled in the ways of the Internet, best just to skip this post. It's not for you. But if you're one of those people who says, "Kvatch, Blogspot sucks! How do I get a spiffy site like Blognonymous up on the Internet?" Then read on...

There are many reasons why you should choose 'self-hosting'. I've listed these before, but let me summarize them here:

Autonomy - Whether you put it on your own server or host it with a service provider, getting your blog off of BlogSpot means that you're in control. You can upload your own stuff, change it at will, and Google can't decide to pull your stuff off the Internet or shut your blog down if they don't like the content.

Durability - Frustrated with BlogSpot's reliability? Self-hosting allows you to find a provider that can give you a 'uptime guarantee' so that your blog is always available. In addition, you can back it up at your leisure--something you can't do at all with BlogSpot.

Flexibility - Tired of New Blogger? Thinking maybe you want to switch to Wordpress or Typepad? Self-hosting makes that a lot easier because you don't have to depend on Google to provide a way to get at the HTML of your posts.

BTW: The little trick that allowed me to do this two-part post is also made possible by self-hosting. I used blogger to format the guide, posted it, copied and moved it to a different location, then instructed Blogger to delete the guide.

Polishifter, I still use Blogger for posting, comments, formatting, feeds...all that, but I never even considered BlogSpot for Blognonymous. Couldn't even if I wanted to. blognonymous.blogspot.com was already taken.

Lizzy...Photoshop is for dealing with the adornments. The real trick to site design these days is cascading style-sheets (CSS). Once you've got a bead on that, go to it.

I really haven't had any problem with content at blogger, and trust me, I've pushed the envelope. The only difference I can see is that blogger is free, and while it does go down quite frequently, you also get what you pay for.